Clean Machines

Hello.

The lack of updates recently has been due to the fact that we stumbled across some work last weekend, and have been there ever since. We got chatting to a bloke next to us in the campsite and his girlfriend was working at a company that hires out campervans (hired campervans in Australia are far more common than hired cars by the way). He said they've been looking for staff so we popped in a week last Friday and they asked us to start on Monday.

Kev's with the blokes cleaning the outside of the vans and 4wds that get rented out, and Charlotte's been with the girls cleaning the insides, although chances are she's going to move on to a better job tomorrow. A couple of the girls who show customers around the vans (telling them not to drive into trees and how to work the cookers etc.) are leaving, so Charlotte's probably going to take one of their places.

It's a nice place, the atmosphere is as relaxed as you'd expect in the Northern Territory, although it does get quite busy at times and we're working the usual long hours. We should be able to stick it out for a month or so and earn those tickets home.

Aside from that we've been fairly dormant. There are plenty of people on our campsite who are working too, so we've made a few friends there and have been spending most of our spare time chatting to them. That usually involves complaining about the Wicked Witch of Winnellie who owns the place.

Last night the trucks for next weekend's Darwin show arrived in the field next door, so half the campsite is taken up by the show staff. It took about 5 hours until a couple of them predictably started brawling last night, but they seem to be an alright bunch.

Who knows what it's going to be like when the show starts on Thursday though. We've got a ride called The Octopus being built up about 30 metres from our tent. That'll be great when we have to get up at 6am for work.

That's about it from us for now. Hope everyone is well back home. We'll update when we next have a day off but the job is 7 days a week if we want it, so we've no idea when that'll be.

Ta ta.

Limbo

Hello.

Our car is home. We're back in Darwin.

We had a few days in Katherine where we managed to pick up a little bit of work for a few days cleaning the cabins on the campsite we were on. That was a pretty nice deal and kept us ticking over for a few days while we continue our search. Believe it or not, we now know how to do hospital corners.

Once that was done we headed up to Darwin hoping that it being the largest city in the Northern Territory would give us a better chance of finding work. There is a small problem with that, because when we were last here it was the beginning of the wet season and half the population had cleared off due to the heat. Now it's peak season and everywhere is full, and competition for jobs is going to be that much fiercer.

We're hoping to hear back from the Cashew Farm today as they might be able to help us out but if not, it's back to the job agencies and checking the noticeboards around town.

We haven't been paid for the grape vine job and that's looking increasingly likely that they're going to rip us off, so there may be some shouting to be done over that. Good job we didn't stay longer!

Aside from that we're in good spirits. Darwin's a bit cooler this time but that's in relative terms; it's still around 30 degrees. It's possible to walk a few metres without collapsing in a heap of sweat and dehydration though, so that's nice. It is good to be able to wake up in the morning and not flick the heater on.

Finally, in Australia everyone has to file tax returns and the financial year has just ended here so we're going to do ours. It's difficult to know for sure but it seems we're entitled to a large part of our tax money back to us so if we can get that, we won't need to work for long and we'll be home before you know it.

That's pretty much all the news for now. Here's a few piccies:

Pruning vines. If you look closely, you can see Charlotte's will to live evaporating:


Chatting to the roadworks blokes who tried to get us work with them. Oh, and an Emu trying to make sweet love to a chair.


Enjoying a dip for the second time in Mataranka thermal springs:


Mrs Mop:

We earned it through the grape vine

Well, technically that title is incorrect but it's the best I can think of.

We arrived at the grape farm last Thursday, just a couple of hours after leaving Alice Springs. We were left to settle in and have a look round the accommodation and can safely say that it's the dirtiest place we've ever seen. The room was quite dirty but the kitchen and the bathrooms were shocking, beyond even student standards.

The two mouse skeletons in one of the freezers might give a clue as to when the place was last cleaned.

So, not a good start. We considered just leaving there and then but thought we should stick it out for a day or two to see how the work was and meet the people. We have all our own stuff so didn't need to use their kitchen for anything but the stove tops, and the bathrooms would just have to be endured. It turned out Charlotte was the only girl working there so we claimed the ladies bathroom for ourselves.

The following day it was off to work. It was crap - frustrating and slow. We were getting up just before the sun rose and working 11 hours until the sun went down, and all for peanuts. We worked out that we were earning the equivalent of 2 pounds an hour. At that rate, we'd have been able to afford our tickets home sometime in 2032. Paper boys would laugh at our pay packets.

After three days we ran for the hills.

The only good thing we got out of it was that there were a bunch of blokes there up from Melbourne. They were a mixture of Kiwis and Tongans and each one of them was built like a tank, despite being about 19 years old. On our last night we all went to the pub (10 miles away) and had a great laugh with them and a couple of other people who had not long been working there.

So we headed north in search of warmer weather and better work. We stopped at a great little campsite called Banka Banka station and nearly managed to find work there, first on a cattle station and then working with a group of blokes who were cutting the grass along the edge of the highway. It seemed like it would have been pretty good and certainly different since they basically move about 30ks a day and then camp in the bush each night for several weeks at a time.

But, they were only looking for one person and despite their efforts weren't allowed to take us both on.

So now we're in Katherine again. We stopped at Mataranka last night and revisited the thermal pools this morning, and are about to raid the job agencies here in Katherine.

And that's our story so far.